What is the proper balance between ordinary people and experts in the control of government? How should we balance power between the states and the nation? How can the majority rule without trampling on minorities?
Is the power of the American President too great? In America, a president is beyond the control of the public until the end of the four year term. So does the power of the American president threaten the liberties of the public? On the other hand, is the executive branch bureaucracy beyond the control of … Read more
We know James Madison as the “Father of the Constitution”. But he also expressed an ingenious afterthought in his Virginia Resolution. James Madison wrote his Virginia Resolution to address a serious oversight in the Constitution. The issue began with the French Revolution in 1789, just after the nation elected George Washington for his first term … Read more
Since government operates by force, does it make us less free or more so? The British philosopher John Locke, who influenced America’s founders probably more than any other political thinker, did not deny that government operates by force. Instead, he showed that there is more freedom under government than under nature: [F]reedom of men under … Read more
America’s founders expected the nation to have government by the masses and by experts at the same time. They looked for a “natural aristocracy” to lead the nation. That phrase means the natural leaders of society. They expected those leaders to take a few weeks or months each year away from their farms, law practices, … Read more
How can government allow majority rule and, at the same time, prevent minority oppression? Democracy means majority rule, but throughout history, majorities have been guilty of minority oppression. James Madison searched for a solution to this problem for America during the years before he and others wrote the U.S. Constitution. In his studies, he came … Read more
